they'll be looking for me
by smorgasbord
Summary: Helblindi finds his brother. Written for norsekink.


**a/n: Written a while back for norsekink  
**

Laufey spends days digging through the rubble. Combing, clawing, until his nails are torn and his hands are shredded. _Alive, alive, alive,_ he chants in his head, a cruel mantra, nothing could have survived under the heavy stone ceiling. Farbauti is beside him, arms bleeding as the debris cuts into his skin.

The bodies they recover are unrecognizable masses of flattened flesh, cemented to the wreckage by their own frozen blood; priests and soldiers, great hulking warriors, crushed by the collapsing temple. The king cannot hold back his sob of grief, it slices through his throat, rolls over the broken land like an avalanche, heavy with sorrow and anger. The tiny being that shared his blood, his heartbeat, his love, is gone.

Laufey falls to his knees. "It's my fault," he croaks, "I left him in the temple. I thought…I thought he would be safe."

"No!" Farbauti hisses. "This is Odin's fault! He did this! He killed our son!"

They huddle together, grasping each other's bleeding hands, and mourn.

..

Helblindi is too young to understand the war, to process the sorrow that sinks its teeth into his mind. All he knows is that his new brother is gone and his heart hurts like someone's been cutting it with the soldiers' swords. He snuggles close to his parents and holds them tight because they're hurting too and he wishes he could make it all better.

The year passes slowly and Jotunheim rebuilds. Helblindi wants to help but he is not yet big enough and Laufey keeps him close. The king doesn't sleep anymore.

Helblindi reads to his mother, bedtime stories to soothe his nerves, except his story books were all destroyed so he borrows his tutor's magic texts instead.

He's not sure whether it's actually helping his mother, but he does learn a lot. He learns to make tunnels in snow drifts, to mould ice, and shoot cold green flames from his palms. He learns about the Casket.

..

"I'm going to bring it back, dam." Helblindi says determinedly, nodding his head.

"Bring what back child?" Laufey asks him.

"A surprise."

..

It's surprisingly easy, tunneling and moulding and melting the layers of the Yggdrasil. Helblindi thinks it must be because the Casket wants to come home.

This is not the Casket.

It's a baby with smooth white skin and round green eyes. He looks like an Aesir baby, has to be an Aesir baby, but somehow Helblindi knows he isn't.

"Hello."

..

The baby is impossibly small, he hasn't learned to talk yet, and he can't even come over to the wall, held back by a strange fence surrounding his bed. But he coos excitedly from his perch and sends over little green sparks that tickle his skin and Helblindi decides that he really likes the silly baby.

He talks to the baby every night before bedtime, telling him stories and jokes, and the baby laughs and tries to climb over the fence to him. Helblindi thinks this must be what it's like to have a brother.

On the tenth night, the baby manages to wiggle out from under the fence and begins a slow but steady crawl towards Helblindi's wall.

"Go, go, go!" Helblindi cheers, clapping his hands.

"What are you doing, child?"

Sire has caught him.

Farbauti glides into the room with the grace of a swan, long black hair swinging behind him. "Helblindi?"

The baby on the other side of the wall squeals when he hears the new voice. Farbauti freezes and watches the babe's skin flood with colour when he tries to reach through the wall.

Helblindi gasps. "Sire what's happening?"

There are tears streaming down Farbauti's face, he recognizes those markings swirling across the baby's skin.

"Your brother is trying to come home."

"ODIN!" Laufey screams at the top of his lungs, he's standing at the Bifrost site, threatening to tear the realms apart to reach Asgard.

The sky lights up with a visual cacophony of colour and Odin descends on the land, too regal for the thief he is.

"Laufey." The Allfather nods. "Your son has broken our truce."

"My son. _My son?"_ A hollow, bitter laugh, "You took my son!"

"Laufey…"

"No!" Laufey roars, "Give him back Odin! Give me back my son!"

"You left him to die!"

"Liar!"

They are seconds away from killing each other when Farbauti stops them. His voice is silken steel, smooth and cold and sharp. "Did you know that you're killing him?"

"What?"

"Jotun children need to be with their mothers. They need to feed off of their mothers' magic, without it they will die. Have you never wondered why he is so small? You've kept him away for a year, Odin. You are killing him."

Frigga absolutely refuses to let her baby go. "He's lying, Odin! He has to be lying!"

"I am not lying you stupid woman!"

Laufey ignores the raised voices and arguing, his attention focused on the tiny blue child in Frigga's arms. The baby tilts his head as if assessing him, and then reaches out two little arms, squirming, crying for his mother.

"No!" Frigga cries. But Laufey has caught the child already, holding him close and murmuring into his hair, they're enveloped in a soft blue glow and instantly the baby calms.

"What are you doing to him?" Frigga lunges for Laufey but is pushed back by a current of warm air.

"He is feeding him, you idiot." Farbauti says, exasperated.  
They start arguing again but the sounds are distant to Laufey's ears, he has his son in his arms, all is right in the world.

"His name is Loki."

Laufey looks up and sees for the first time, Odin's child, fair haired Thor is crying. "You're going to take him away aren't you? Because we can't take care of him properly," he sniffles.

"He's my son."

"He's been my brother for longer!"

Thor takes a deep breath and swipes the tears off his face. "Will you let me visit him?"

Laufey looks down at his son, _Loki,_ strokes his cheek with a gentle finger. "Would you like that? Visits from your Aesir friends?"

Loki giggles and emits a high pitched squeal, nuzzling into his mother's hand.

"You may visit Odinson."


End file.
